


Whisperings

by Beophron



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 02:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15305364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beophron/pseuds/Beophron
Summary: And now mere hours after he stood before his father’s smoldering pyre, he had a moment to listen to those whisperings.They told him to go. He may celebrate now, but this moment was temporary and he must move on and finish what everyone around him thought was done.





	Whisperings

Luke wasn’t sure exactly when the whisperings began. He noticed them days after the final Battles of Endor, but he knew that he had heard them before. Whisperings of the force telling him he wasn’t quite done yet, that there was somewhere he needed to go. He tried to think back to where he first heard them, but could not pinpoint the time. The last few weeks of his life were a whirlwind of chaos, and nothing fully registered around him as the galaxy he knew collapsed. 

And now mere hours after he stood before his father’s smoldering pyre, he had a moment to listen to those whisperings. 

They told him to go. He may celebrate now, but this moment was temporary and he must move on and finish what everyone around him thought was done. 

Han and Leia asked if he was in danger. He took pause and considered the question. No, he was not in danger, but this task could not be delayed, and he needed to go alone. How long should he be gone? Not long he assured her with a smile an a hug. This was not like the journey to Dagobah, which had seemed to take up priceless decades in the middle of a raging conflict. This trip would be short, a fleeting moment in the span of his lifetime. But it might just be the most important moment of this entire war. He knew that much for sure.

* * *

He never expected to return to Tatooine, there was nothing left here for him but painful memories. His aunt and uncle were not wealthy people and their farm held little value for Luke to reclaim or bandits to pillage. He returned to find the place virtually untouched, the only difference was two unremarkable mounds built by sympathetic neighbors who had come looking when Owen and Beru were nowhere to be found. 

The same could be said for Obi-Wan’s home, the old hermit had even less to his name than Luke’s family. At least they had the infrastructure for moisture farming. Despite living on the edges of civilization, his home was also untouched. The Sand People who would have raided any other building this far out, were too terrified of the Desert Ghost to set foot on his land. 

As he approached Obi-Wan’s home, Luke could feel a familiar presence in the Force. Was it possible that Obi-Wan was still alive? And if he was, why would he have returned to the desert, and why had he not revealed himself sooner? 

Luke stood outside the building. He knew this was where it would end, this was the last door to be closed on the war. He traveled to harsh worlds, fought in vicious battles, taken on the Huts, and stood before Lord Vader himself. And yet this gave him pause. Luke still had much to learn about the Force, and he wasn’t sure what it was he was feeling inside that building. Perhaps the Tusken Raiders were right, perhaps this land was haunted by some demon, some ghost of the Force. 

Again the whispers beckoned him, becoming impatient. _You are so close young Jedi, now is not the time for fear._

Slowly, carefully, he willed himself to enter the home. 

Inside nothing had changed aside from a thin layer of dust coating everything. He frowned, surely if Obi-Wan was still here this place would not seem so ghostly. He scanned the small building, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the hooded figure seated at table. They pulled their hood back, revealing a face Luke had never seen before but felt so familiar in the Force. 

Luke had never seen a Togruta before. He’d heard of them, seen their faces on the holonet, but never crossed paths with one. In person, they were far more frightening than he could have imagined. She rose, easily towering over him, at seven feet tall. In the bland, colorless landscape of Tatooine the bright oranges, whites, and blues of her skin seemed to glow. The wild, tiger striped patterns on her horns and face reminded him of the various venomous reptiles that roamed the desert. He’d heard stories of togruta being a fearsome species, but didn’t quite believe it until he stood in the presence of one. 

“Skywalker.” She said, pulling him out of his thoughts. 

“Who are you?” He replied, just a little too quickly, just a little too accusatory. She smiled sadly at him. 

“I did not know Master Kenobi lived this way. The simplicity of this planet, I suppose it suited him.” 

“You knew Old Ben?” 

“Old Ben? No, I never met that man. I knew Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was one of my most dear friends.” 

That puzzled Luke. He didn’t know much about Kenobi from before they left Tatooine together. But what he did know did not seem to make sense with what this woman was saying. Ben Kenobi was a hermit, he lived alone and as far as he knew didn’t talk to anyone but the traders he bought his supplies from. This togruta was so much younger than Ben was. She could not have possibly known him before his coming to the planet. 

Ben had mentioned fighting in the Clone Wars but those ended over 20 years ago. This alien would have been a little girl. 

“I don’t understand. Who are you, why did you bring me here?” 

“My name is Ahsoka Tano, and I did not bring you here, young one. The Force has brought us together. I simply followed it because I wanted to thank you for saving Anakin Skywalker.” 

He stared at her. Old Ben had said he knew his father, and now this woman in his home claimed to know his father as well.

“You’re mistaken, I didn’t save him. Anakin Skywalker is dead.” he said slowly. 

She looked down, appearing as though she was holding back tears. Did she not know that Anakin had become Darth Vader? What stories had she heard that led her to believe Luke had saved him, and not been there at the moment of his death? 

“I know. Darth Vader killed him many years ago.” She used the same wording Ben had used to describe his father, he noted. “I tried so hard to bring him back. I feared I would never feel my Master again, until I did days ago and I heard that a young man, Luke Skywalker, had defeated the Empire and ended the wars.” 

“You’re a Jedi, like Obi-Wan, and my Father. I thought he hunted them down I thought there were no more Jedi.” Luke grew excited as the revelation struck him. 

“No Skywalker, I am no Jedi.” 

“You called him your Master. He trained you.” Yoda was gone, Kenobi was gone, his father was gone, but standing here was his father’s apprentice. He knew enough about the Old Order to know what that meant. This was someone who had learned the Force, perhaps even from the Order itself, she could teach him she could- 

“I can’t teach you how to be a Jedi.” She said, as if she could read his thoughts. “Nor should you aspire to be one.”

“Please. You have to be able to teach me something. I can bring them back, we can restore the Jedi.” he pleaded, his excitement giving way to desperation.

“Teach you.” She frowned, shaking her head. “Fine. I will teach you something. About the Jedi and about your father. You will find their teachings, I am sure of it, and you will try to build a New Jedi Order. But be warned, pay no worship to the Jedi Texts. They will lead you astray and they will teach you to be just as cruel as the slavers who taught your father to hate.” 

Slavers? Luke didn’t know anything about slavers. He knew that his father was from Tatooine and slavery was common here but how does a slave become the most powerful man in the galaxy? 

“Are- are you implying my father was a slave?” 

She nodded. 

“The Jedi are one extreme of a system designed to stand in balance. In their eyes, to be truly enlightened is to be absolutely selfless. But the Jedi Texts will destroy you. For they do not allow us those basic things we need to live. Love, companionship, emotion.”

“The peak of selflessness is slavery. When everything you have and everything you are exists only as a tool for others. Your father was the only one in the Jedi Order to understand that because he was the only one to have been a slave before becoming a Jedi.” 

“And the Jedi told a slave that he was not allowed to feel. That he was not allowed to be angry, or upset, or care for the people around around him. They told him to be at peace when his mother was tortured, when his mentor was murdered, and when his Padawan was exiled. They told him he wasn’t allowed to love his wife.” She paused, taking a deep shuddering breath. “ Are we supposed to be surprised that broke down and lashed out?” 

He is reminded of Yoda’s pleas to stay on Dagobah and leave Han and Leia to die. Yoda was a great Jedi master, and Luke called his judgement into question when he suggested the unthinkable. 

“I cannot teach you how to be a Jedi and I will not do that to his son.” 

He could feel the anger and despair rolling off her. She was so unlike Obi-Wan who kept everything hidden from him. She was a beacon in the Force, a overwhelming flood of emotion and passion. This was what he felt whispering to him from across the galaxy, her righteous desire for justice and compassion calling out to him. 

They stood in silence, Ahsoka standing tall and defiant, and unbearably sad as Luke tried to make sense of it all. No one had ever told him this much about Anakin. He wondered if there was anyone else in the galaxy who knew him like she did, if there was anyone else so deeply affected by his death. Slowly her anger dissipated until only that lonely sadness remained. 

“I loved your father and it is my deepest regret that I was not there for him when he needed me.” 

“Take heart young one. Do not rebuild the Jedi Order. The Sith are gone, the Jedi are gone. You will have no one to guide you and no one to corrupt you. Be compassionate where the Jedi were not.” 

She bowed before him and started to leave. “May the Force be with you, Skywalker.” 

“Ahsoka wait-” She stopped. Luke wasn’t sure what he was asking her to wait for exactly. But she might be the only person left with answers for him. It seemed too soon to let her go, too abrupt. Even though he knew that she would not stay, he had to try. 

She studied him and he knew from the look on her face that she knew what he wanted to ask. She sighed and gave him a small nod.

“I will not leave you. Not this time.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know there is a lot of different ideas on how/if Ahsoka meets Luke. This is my personal head canon for it. Plus I think this makes Luke's behavior in The Last Jedi make more sense. 
> 
> As always, comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.


End file.
